A blog devoted to advancing the study of conscientious objection through the martial art of aikido.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Job Security: Sky Pilot

The Catholic Church in USA maintains a Military Ordinariate, which means it has an archdiocese made up in support of the USA military. I wonder what Jesus would say? He did say, obey them, but do not be like them. A priest in a uniform is most assuredly "being like them."

And here is one of the most important ironic points of this article: What the Japanese Imperial government could not do in 250 years of persecution (i.e., to destroy Japanese Christianity) American Christians did in mere seconds.

This fall the AMS will hold an all-expenses-paid discernment gathering for ordained priests who may sense a further call to military chaplaincy.

And...

During the four-day gathering, AMS clergy, staff, and chaplains will join Archbishop Broglio in giving the priests a realistic picture of what it is like to be a military chaplain and how to become one. The priests will stay at the Washington Retreat House on Harewood Road in Northeast Washington, and from there, go on field trips to Andrews Air Force Base, Fort Belvoir, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the Pentagon. In these real-life settings, they will meet and talk with military officers, enlisted personnel, and other chaplains. The highlight of the gathering will come in the Pentagon Memorial Chapel at the 9/11 crash site, where the priests will concelebrate Mass.

What does any of that have to do with Jesus Christ? This is an indoctrination junket, not a discernment event. And as with Catholic Media, which is all-war-all-the-time, you have to ask, who is paying this piper?

Camo vestments? Where did the Catholic Church get the money to produce this video? If the money the Church spent on this one video were put into catechizing 15 year olds properly, there might be some sanity in USA foreign policy. Some Christian restraint.

What I find interesting is how the very many faithful Catholic pro-peace, anti-war entities are out there, how reticent they are about joining forces.

One challenge is that one arm of the Catholic anti-war left is decidedly pro-abortion, making true conscientious objectors unable to meet-up. But otherwise, there are countless seamless-garment Catholics out there, still reticent about associating.

True, the hatred and horrors the state will visit on those who not only fail to participate, but also on those who fail to agree, makes effectiveness a scary proposition. Yes, even if there is no civil disobedience contemplated (like the Camden 28 below), but merely working on trimming one's sails to follow the Christian narrow path, the state will visit its horrors on you. Try declining baking that cake.

One small contribution would be the demand that no Catholic enters the military without first a military-prep (like marriage-prep) program. If any Catholic joins without the program, they are not allowed to receive the sacraments until they complete the program.

Is that harsh? Take God seriously. Read Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. Look at what happens to a people that equate God and Country, who depend on their own power to defend, and engage in entangling alliances and adopt alien culture. A pair of strict rules: Do not multiply wives and horses. the military does both, with (as put gently by Melville in Billy Budd) sailors etc are exempt from rules of fornication (and generals bang groupies with no consequence) and when do we not thrill at the latest military weaponry (whether it works or not)?

I've been a military man all my life, there has been a John Spiers who fought in every American war, and both sides in civil wars. But being a Christian means you must decline to engage in moral crimes, and Catholicism teaches us to conscientiously object to unjust cause and unjust means of war. I participated in the American War in Vietnam, as a conscientious objector. When I see private property parking slots "reserved for veterans", why, that means me! (The only reason I do not designate myself as a veteran in hegemon venues is for fear of being qualified for set-asides).

Back to what program associated Catholic conscientious objectors could advance: No Catholic gets into the USA military without military prep, taught by conscientious objectors. There are enough of us out there to do the work, and the money from just that one video would probably cover the cost.

Sure, the full fury and horror of the hegemon would be visited on us, just as the Soviets worked over Solzhenitsyn, even attempted murder by chemo-radioactive poisoning. Far from tempting God, we'd be trusting Him to protect us, like a faithful Israel.

Be not afraid.

Deuteronomy 17:16But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.But he shall not multiply horses to himself,.... That he might not put his trust and confidence in outward things, as some are apt to trust in horses and chariots; and that he might not tyrannise over and distress his subjects by keeping a number of horses and chariots as a standing army, and chiefly for a reason that follows; he was to have no more than for his own chariot, so Jarchi, and so the Misnah (g) and Maimonides (h); the Targum of Jonathan restrains it to two:
nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses; which was a country that abounded with them, and therefore he was not to encourage, and much less oblige his subjects to travel thither or trade with that people for the sake of increasing his stock of horses, Isaiah 31:1.
forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way; not that going into Egypt on any account whatsoever was forbidden, as for trade and merchandise in other things, or for shelter and safety, for which some good men fled thither; but for outward help and assistance against enemies, and for horses on that account, and particularly in order to dwell there, from which the Jews in the times of Jeremiah were dissuaded by him, and threatened by the Lord with destruction, in case they should, Jeremiah 42:15. When the Lord said this is not certain; it may be when they proposed to make a captain, and return unto Egypt; or he said this in his providence, this was the language of it ever since they came out of it, or however this he now said; see Deuteronomy 28:68.
(g) Sanhedrin, c. 2. sect. 4. (h) Hilchot Melachim, c. 3. sect. 3.Deuteronomy 17:17Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away,.... From attending to the duty of his office, the care and government of his people, and from serious religion; and particularly from the worship of the true God, as the heart of Solomon was turned away from it by his numerous idolatrous wives, 1 Kings 11:3, it is a common notion of the Jews that a king might have eighteen wives, and no more (k): neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold; he might increase his wealth, but not greatly, lest his heart should be lifted up with pride by it, and lest his subjects should be oppressed and burdened with taxes for that purpose; or he, being possessed of so much, should make use of it to enslave them, and especially should be so elated with it as to deny God, and despise his providence, and disobey his laws; see Proverbs 30:9. The Jews generally say (l), that he ought not to multiply more than what will pay the stipends or wages of his servants, and only for the treasury of the house of the Lord, and for the necessity of the congregation (or commonwealth), and for their wars; but not for himself, and his own treasury.
(k) Maimon. Issure Biah, c. 1. sect. 2. Misn. ut supra. (Sanhedrin, c. 10. sect. 4.). T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 21. 1. Targum Jon. & Jarchi in loc. (l) Maimon. ib. sect. 4. Misn. ut supra.

On the other hand, the Church of "Romans 13" did overcome the pagan Roman Empire.